Wandering Along the Path: Right Speech

I just finished listening to my teacher's dharma talk, and he focused on the difficult work of introspection about our shadow side.  Nobody wants to face our human nature, when it comes to ignorance, greed, hatred, jealousy and pride.  We wish to believe that we are better than that.  When we see protests where people are massing and demonstrating against the social distancing, it's easy to think we are superior to them.  We unconsciously reject them from our hearts, and dissolve compassion.  But I do feel compassion.  They are frightened, and it's a comfort to them to be united with others in their fears.  Their fear is well founded:  economic ruin, health and being unable to control this virus, feeling like they are outliers suffering for the city folks' benefit.  Yes they are harming themselves doing this, but we all have that part of us that wants to blame and unleash our anger.  Donald Trump is the embodiment of this fear and lashing out, and I've heard many people note how afraid he looks these days.  When fear arises, some ugly impulses also arise.  If we are able to control that shadow in ourselves, is it partly because our situation is better, and we are not suffering the way some others are?  If we're honest, when we see these folks, we're seeing ourselves and our human frailties.  So let's not condemn them, let's pray for them.